Wicked
by AriTeir
Summary: The story of a little girl who never fit in anywhere.Jun the Bounty Hunter.


Wicked

_Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender._

_00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

Jun was the very epitome of Fire Nation beauty. She was what every little girl in that sweltering country dreamed of looking like while they forced down whatever horrible foods their mothers had promised would one day grant them such looks. Her skin was pale and flawless, her frame slim and angular. Her face was heart shaped accented by high cheekbones and full lips and a dainty nose. Her eyes were the perfect size almond shaped and placed evenly on either side of her nose. Even her hair, black and silky was a perfect example of what a Fire Nation woman should look like.

It was these features that as an infant had marked her as Fire Nation. Not that she needed them to tell anyone that, a baby abandoned on the steps of an Earth Kingdom abbey after the Fire Nations occupation of a nearby town. Really it didn't take a genius to figure out where her father had originated or what her mother's circumstances had been. Of course Jun wasn't the only baby to be abandoned on someone's doorstep after the Fire Nation had departed the area.

Jun had hated the abbey from the minute she could even recognize such an emotion. It was set on a mountain where the winds blew harshly and everything seemed bleak and threadbare. Nothing more than a few patches of scrub had the audacity to cling to the rocks. And sitting at the very top of this mountain in complete defiance to the winds was the abbey. It's Whitewashed walls rising up from it's stark surroundings. There were at least three villages situated in the land around it, mother superior had said that once upon a time the land had belonged to Air Nomads, who else, she said could love such a windswept empty environment.

The abbeys inside weren't much better. The walls were washed down with limejuice and smelt constantly of citrus. Statues of the spirits stared through sightless eyes from numerous alcoves their bright garish paint peeling. Bells rang non-stop. It was cold and damp and not at all child friendly, despite all the children who lived there. The winds howled at the walls enraged that anything would stand against them. Nuns scurried to and fro in their robes, their shoes scuffing against the cobbled floor.

Jun had been one of ten 'orphans' to be placed on the abbot's steps around the time of the Fire Nations latest raid; there were several more already living there from previous ones. It was with these other orphans that she was to be a collective with for the rest of her time at the abbot. They were dressed in identical brown robes their hair cut at the same short length.

"What you want to have long hair? Look like a suicide maiden, like your mothers!"

Sister Ching sho said whenever the girls complained. It shut most of them up. Jun hated the sisters, every single last one of them.

Sister Ching sho was full of herself, plus her stories of the orphans mothers changed all the time. One minute they were pitiful suicide maidens then next they were whores who had offered themselves to the Fire Nation. They had left the girls to roll down the mountain slopes, abandoned them in rice paddies or tossed them to wild animals. In each case it was almost certain that none of the orphans would have survived if Sister Ching sho hadn't heard their pitiful cries and rescued them.

Sister Ji'an was a pious little mouse. Who went through life begging to suffer like so many of her treasured spirits. She shaved her head, tore at her skin , fasted every day and then offered everything up to one of the lesser spirits, a kitchen god who was roasted on his own fires, the goddess of thread who was hung. The amount of lesser-known gods who had gone through painful deaths before the spirits decided to endow them with such ordinary heavenly duties was astounding. Jun wanted to punch her square in her upturned nose and rip the prayer beads from her neck. But she knew that if she did sister Ji'an would simply thank the spirits for allowing her to suffer.

Sister Mi was strict and cold, always ordering the children around yelling at them for the simplest things. Jun hated her more than anyone. It didn't matter Sister Mi hated her too. Perhaps it was because they were so alike in many aspects they couldn't understand why the other was so characteristically different from themselves. Jun and Sister Mi had a track record of bad experiences with each other. One particular time Jun had stolen a fruit tart from the kitchens and Sister Mi had forced her to stand outside the abbot wall in the harsh wind until she apologized. Of course the Sister would have to supervise her. Jun didn't apologize and Sister Mi wouldn't give in. They spent the night standing outside those whitewashed walls staring at each other desperate not to show any form of weakness.

Perhaps Jun's hatred of the abbot stemmed from the fact the she didn't understand it. Waiting for some unforeseen force to guide you through life was a waste of time, especially when there were so many more practical solutions. Why pray for someone to donate money to the abbey for food when old man Ji on the farm at the bottom of the mountain was to old to notice when his stock was missing.

"Suggesting we steal from that dear old man! You wicked child!"

"You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"Wicked, wicked, wicked!"

Her fellow 'orphans' weren't much better company. Half of them were sniveling pathetic girls who missed their mothers and felt they had no worth, Jun agreed they didn't. Useless the lot of them. The other half were sickenly pious and cheerful thanking spirits left right and center. It made Jun want to punch them in the face too, she often did.

It was for such an offense that Jun was once again punished to stand outside the abbot with the wind whipping at her cheeks. She didn't mind, it was better out here, she thought and at least the wind carried the sound of Do mei cries as the nuns tried to put her nose straight right to her ears. It was a satisfying noise to say the least. Jun slumped against the wall, she knew Sister Mi would be coming to talk with her soon, once she was finished telling Do mei how absolutely silly she was being no doubt. The young girl shivered she was in her summer robes, made from thin scratchy material and the wind cut through them pathetically.

She must have made a rather sorry looking sight. A young girl with admittedly gangly limbs that she hadn't quite drown into yet wearing a summer robe in the middle of autumn. Her arms were bleeding from where Do mei had bitten her (Jun had torn out a clump of the girls hair for it, with any luck the sisters would shave it all off) Jun's cheeks were red from the wind and she could feel her nose starting to dribble because of the inescapable cold. But she didn't mind it anything was better than being in the abbey that was for sure.

Unfortunately the time to herself didn't last long, it was only a few hours before the gates were opened and Jun was marched back inside and directly to the mother superior. As she passed the dormitories Jun was delighted to see that Do meis nose was swollen and had turned along with the surrounding area a lovely purplely black colour. And her head was much to Juns nigh on uncontainable joy shaved. She was proud of her handy work.

The Mother Superior was a no nonsense strait backed woman with an endless supply of rumors as to why she joined the sisterhood. She sat at a hardwood desk in a cold dark room where the only source of light came from a foul smelling butter lamp and the coils of incense floated aimlessly from the numerous sticks lighted throughout the room. Jun was deposited at the door.

"What"

The mother superior asked not looking up from whatever she was writing

"Am I going to do with you?"

At this point she set her brush aside and turned to Jun. Although she was old it was easy to tell that once upon a time before she had donned the habit the mother superior would have been heartbreakingly beautiful. It only aided the many rumors about her, why would a woman as beautiful as she must have once been join a convent?

"Well don't just stand there child, come in"

She ordered. Jun slowly shuffled into the room

"I suppose that I should punish you for what you did to poor Do mei, and make no mistake child I will"

The mother superior continued casting a harsh glance over Jun.

"As a novice you should strive to obtain harmony both within yourself and your environment, this is the principle on which this abbey was built and what we all as it's patrons hope to achieve. Yet you strive to create disharmony and purposefully seek to cause trouble. I don't understand you Jun, all you have you have because of us, you want for nothing, and yet you refuse to be content"

If she had been here to plead her case Jun would have at this point informed the mother superior that she wanted more from life than simple contentment. Three stable meals a day and a cotton shift may have been enough for the sisters but in no way was it ever going to be enough for Jun. Of course she wasn't here to plead her case so like a good little 'novice' Jun stayed silent, as was expected of her.

"It is a harsh world beyond these walls child, you would not have been born were it any other way. You will accompany Sister Ji'an on her weekly visits to the villages, carrying whatever load she deems fit to give you. Perhaps then you will come to appreciate the life you have here."

The other girls tittered amongst themselves as Jun prepared for her first visit to the villages. They thought her punishment to be terrible and exactly what she deserved. But to Jun it wasn't a punishment. To Jun this was if anything a reward, she got to leave the abbey once a week, what could be better. Sure she had to carry heavy baskets filled with the produce Sister Ji'an sold at the village markets, but she didn't care, freedom was freedom.

Jun didn't have shoes, none of the girls at the abbot did, not even a plain slipper. So every week she had to make the journey down the mountain the abbey sat atop and into the village in her summer robes without anything to protect her feet from the thistles and sharp rocks that scattered across the harsh landscape.

Sister Ji'an and Jun set off from the abbot at five every Thursday morning. It was a long journey to the village a the base of the mountain, filled with treacherous paths and the odd straight drop here and there. The mountain paths were marked with prayer stones Sister Ji'an stopped at every stone to pray and to offer a blessing to the mountain spirits. Jun thought it was a waste of time not to mention space, they already had enough to carry without adding enough water to fill every one of the seven bowls that sat at each prayer stone.

And so stopping to complete the proper rituals at every path they took along the mountain path Jun and Sister Ji'an made their way down to the village.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_STORY NOTES_

_Canon: I am well aware that in Sozin's comet a little more of Jun's background is revealed. I have not actually seen the Avatar finale, but I have been spoiled for the whole thing and will tie this story into the cannon eventually. Aslo I know Jun originated in the Earth Kingdom but you have to admit she looks Fire Nation._

_Water: In Tibet and many other himaylayan Countries mountain roads are marked with stones carved with images of Bhudda or other dieties, offerings can be left at these markers and many people carev messages into the stones._

_Okay feel free to tell me what you think so far, I accept critisim just please be constructive and polite._


End file.
